the 5th international conference of photography & theory
famagusta gate

nicosia, cyprus
november 22–24, 2018

as drones fly over our heads surveying our movements, it becomes evident that the fast evolving technologies of capturing images of war and violence have resulted, among other things, in an unprecedented extent of spectacles of conflict. anaesthetised and disconcerted because of our repeated encounter with the visual representation of the ever increasing instances of strife, the potential democratic role of photographic images in addressing how we understand notions of pluralism, control, manipulation, terror and erasure gains precedence as we realize our numbness due to over-exposure.

propaganda, resistance and activism are re-narrated through a post––and yet neo-colonial frame of political intervention, control and detention by world powers, while the presence of photographic images of conflict has become firmly relocated, placed within contemporary art practice and the museum space. at the same time, due to the proliferating technologies of production, the multiplicity of photographic practices, genres, uses and migrations of photographs, we are compelled to start thinking about photographic endeavours in terms of a multitude of photographies instead of the singularity of photography.

the 2018 international conference of photography and theory interweaves the ideas of the conflictual and the archival in relation to the photographic image. the open call is shaped on the basis of three thematic strands: archiving photographies; conflicts and photographic mediations; photographies and conflict as cultural product.

BLOCC (building leverage over creative capitalism) derives from block: a component of building material, a neighborhood or partition within a city, or a deliberate obstruction of an opponent's intentions. it is a strategy to tackle the relationship between contemporary art and the current global phenomenon of gentrification. how might we tackle a single planetary development alongside its many local manifestations? how, in other words, to forge international alliances when your legitimacy, and your working knowledge, stems from particular neighborhood materialities? further, how to survive complicity in a moment when developers, city planners, and non-profits are instrumentalizing artists in the violent process of displacement. BLOCC is a collaborative project that proposes education as strategy and evolves as chimeric structure involving a modular and viral template.

BLOCC is an international cohort that includes a geographer, social worker, organizers, artists, filmmakers, designer, scholars, and educators based in beirut, tulsa, berlin, belgium/brazil, london, zurich, and lausanne. in the summer of 2017, we assembled as fellows of the sommerakademie paul klee in bern, switzerland with artistic director tirdad zolghadr.

the inaugural fikra graphic design biennial, “ministry of graphic design,” proposes graphic design as integral to contemporary civic life, forming nearly every medium, message, and communication we encounter today. graphic design continues to gain in prominence, as seen in the rising enrollments in graphic design higher degrees worldwide, in the integration of design thinking into every aspect of global entrepreneurship, and even in the sophisticated communication of international public, non-profit, and governmental institutions to guide policy, problem-solving, and public opinion. yet graphic design is still often overlooked as the mere commercial production of visual surfaces for existing ideas, which is seldom challenged or re-opened for redefinition. what does “graphic design” actually denote today? and what might it mean in the future?

the fictional “ministry of graphic design” starts with an expanded view of the field, considering professional, cultural, and conceptual perspectives. moving away from existing disciplinary definitions and medium-specific approaches, the biennial examines how today’s graphic designers play a crucial role in tasks as diverse as entrepreneurial development, content generation, meaning-making, strategic thinking, form-giving, project distribution, life-cycle planning, and policy creation.

the biennial’s core argument is that, since its origins, graphic design has always combined the roles of both artist and facilitator, and that this very hybridity comprises its contemporary value. in times of change — with emerging problems and the necessity for new solutions — the field’s creative and relational strengths are a strong contribution to business, politics, and society at large, but also help construct our imagination about a better future. through this sustained presence, expertise, intuition, and insight, today’s graphic designers help to shape significant products and processes alike.

a video exhibition on the manhattan bridge anchorage
brooklyn, new york
thursday, november 1, 2018, sundown

curated by danielle epstein, marble house project

the eight female-identifying artists in this exhibition invite the audience to learn through liminal space whereby poetic gestures become essential elements in communicating history. the films in this exhibition are constructed through experiential, sensory, tactile and painterly approaches. this uniquely felt approach expands the potential of documentary - here sensory perception is held in in equal esteem to scientific fact.

partipating artists:

jesse epstein, bethlehem steel
maya erdelyi, hanemun honeymoon
dee hibbert-jones and nomi talisman, untitled (green-card)
gina kamentsky, silo
yuliya lanina, never and both at the same time
heather m. o’brien, where this photograph was found
emma piper-burket, iraq water crisis

about marble house project:
marble house project is a multi-disciplinary artist residency program that fosters collaboration & the exchange of ideas by providing an environment for artists across disciplines to live and work side by side. located in dorset, vermont, marble house project has hosted over 285 artists since 2014 when the program was launched. all of the filmmakers in light year 43 participated in residencies between 2016 and 2018. for more information please visit marblehouseproject.org.

the american university of beirut, lebanon
west hall, auditorium c
september 21, 2018, 12:30pm

several lens-based works will be presented. these works question the limits of a particular moment of patriarchal imagining, and, in turn, the impact these limits have on domestic life. by shifting, morphing and redirecting constructs of militarism, power, gender and race, the artist’s photographic interventions with a 35mm khodachrome slide archive aim to reveal the duplicitous nature of myth and its vast contradictions. the source material spans across time and space––u.s., japan, europe––there's overlap, crossing of oceans, borders––fragmented memories of conflict are built into imagination.

the FAS research lunch aims offer an opportunity for full-faculty members to learn about one another's work, to build the FAS community, to enhance a research culture, and to encourage interdisciplinary collaborative projects.

BLOCC was formed in 2017, by the eight artist fellows of the sommerakademie paul klee in bern. on august 18, we’ll present the first blueprint of our teaching template, and show you an amusing, short video. or maybe just a video. BLOCC seeks to alter the relationship between contemporary art and gentrification, one generation at a time. by means of an experimental, adaptable teaching method. in essence, BLOCC reflects an entirely new way of learning art. on the one hand, it places art’s relationship to city politics at the very center of formal training. right alongside feminism, critical theory, harry szeemann, paul klee and all the rest. on the other hand, it introduces a teaching template that is introduced from afar, but remains open-ended as it builds, crystalizing differently in different cities.

the sommerakademie paul klee (spk) is a cooperation between bern university of the arts hkb and zentrum paul klee. under newly appointed artistic director tirdad zolghadr, spk seeks to account for the consequences of contemporary art. it traces the impact artists effectively have on the world around them, and works towards possibilities of reclaiming and steering that leverage. as such, it asks how the traction of contemporary art, as is, can be used to maximum effect, here and now.

over two summer sessions – august 2017 and august 2018 – eight fellows are granted access to the university's infrastructure and technical support, and will proceed to collectively author a public event scheduled for april 2019. although based on the idea of an academy, the aim is to transcend the blueprint of seminars and tutorials, and to focus on group research and cross-professional coalition building.

we're no fans of mcdonald's, but we can't escape the impact of their golden arches on our landscape, culture and emotional psyche. and unsurprisingly, they're incredibly photographic. their shimmering presence can be strange, funny, and ominous - at times a topographical eyesore, at others, an unfortunate landmark or "where's waldo" beacon of americanism wherever we go. we put out a call for various interpretations of the logo in context. without further ado, here are a multitude of photographs of the mcdonalds logo in its unsettling glory.

humble arts foundation is committed to promoting and supporting new photography, and dedicated to the artistic and professional development of those who practice it. based in new york city, seattle, detroit and san francisco, humble has served the international photography community for over a decade through exhibitions, grant making, publishing, educational programming and community building.

since its founding in 1902, byrdcliffe has welcomed artists—bob dylan, philip guston, eva hesse, and hundreds more—to and live and work surrounded by 250 acres of the catskill mountains’ serene natural beauty. byrdcliffe offers several types of residency ranging from four weeks to five months to year-round for artists in multiple disciplines. the main criterion for acceptance to byrdcliffe’s air program is artistic excellence and a demonstrated commitment to one’s field of endeavor. byrdcliffe seeks to pull together artists from varying perspectives and demographics, engaging in a broad range of artistic practices.

the american university of beirut
nicely building studios
beirut, lebanon

may 3, 2018, 2pm

this visual slide lecture focuses on an array of lens-based projects that intersect with notions of sea & society. the talk is performed in the context of a course led by nikolas kosmatopoulos, assistant professor of international affairs and anthropology at the american university of beirut, lebanon. the course promotes a sea-centered, theory-based and practice-oriented anthropological project and is part of kosmatopoulos' larger project titled, the floating laboratory on action and theory at sea (floats).

floats is a conversation inspired, motivated and literally moved by the sea. as such, it is located nowhere permanently, but rather it is rotating in the (mediterranean) sea, along other innate and non-innate flows, such as merchandise, minerals and militaries, occasionally navigating through them. floats seeks to be a continuous critical commentary on the perils of state-oriented sovereignty and land-centered social theory. it takes seriously the idea of “floating” and the state of contemporary rootlessness, as in migration, therefore, while facilitating floating conversations over questions of social theory and the environment, including the relationship between nature and humanity.

the japanese american cultural & community center and sustainable little tokyo present windows of little tokyo. beginning in spring 2018, the neighborhood of little tokyo, los angeles transforms into an exhibition with eleven artworks displayed on windows across the historic, 134-year-old japanese american neighborhood.

the rauschenberg foundation is pleased to announce the award grantees for the 2018 rauschenberg foundation archives research grant, a resource for researchers and scholars interested in visiting the rauschenberg foundation archives in new york city. this year's winners were selected from a competitive pool including historians, artists, curators, writers, poets and educators from over twenty-five different countries. they will be researching in residence at the foundation throughout 2018.

"robert rauschenberg was an artist of endless possibility, collaboration, and interpretation; his archives are the same. the inaugural researchers have the potential to reinterpret materials with diverse viewpoints and unique lines of investigations." said francine snyder, director of archives and scholarship. "we look forward to contemporary interpretations of the archives."

the robert rauschenberg foundation archives, consisting of robert rauschenberg's personal papers and the records from his florida and new york studios, is the most comprehensive body of information on the artist's life and career. the archives research grant supports continued scholarly and investigative use of these materials by supporting individuals that demonstrate a compelling need to use the archives.

it is a timely moment to be an american educator in beirut, lebanon. how can we move beyond mass media and apprehension, into a deeper local politic and understanding of one another? this talk will explore pedagogy that challenges the dynamics of traditional classrooms, prioritizes open dialogue, and values the lived experience of each person in the room. photography, video and writing gestures where students become co-teachers will be discussed. considering the different temporalities from which we speak, when do we press the shutter? what is at stake in our images? what is visual literacy?

over the period of summer 2017 to spring 2019, the sommerakademie paul klee bern grants fellowships to eight artists committed to issues spelled out in the realty program. having collectively pinned down some fundamental working premises, the fellows now convene in berlin to further elaborate the key premises, and share some core concerns with a small public. in conversation with tirdad zolghadr, the aim is to strategically reflect on the embeddedness of one’s practice within political, labor, and housing questions. with the point of departure being not only that contemporary art is an unregulated field par excellence. but that this precarious state of affairs produces the very cosmopolitan creative class that bolsters gentrification.

allan sekula was an artist engaged in a lifelong investigation of our world, directly influenced by his experiences growing up amidst the shifting american economic landscape of the 1970s. he was itinerant geographically, but was also a traveller between different realms of knowledge. his recent exposure in his own country has reflected on the late artist’s extremely broad and varied body of work, that begun with his influential early publication photography against the grain. he articulated his explorations using different practical and conceptual tools; photography, writings and film, but also history of art, marxism, literature, history and psychoanalysis. his command of these fields made him an extraordinary writer, theoretician and teacher. the depth of his research and the diversity of his approaches perhaps undoubtedly contribute to the continued relevance of his observations, despite his untimely passing.

beirut art center invites a panel of writers, artists, educators, curators and critics, most of whom have personally worked with the artist, for a discussion centered on the relationship between the artist’s work and the ways his work has been exhibited, but also the specificity of his insights. the discussion will also deal with sekula’s work and pedagogical processes, which often aim to reorder visual hierarchies and constitute an important effort to combine practices which are often considered as opposed: art criticism and visual art practice.

overcrossings was a series of three happenings on three pedestrian overcrossings above the interstate-110 arroyo seco freeway during summer 2016. the project will culminate in an artist publication. the i-110, celebrated as the world’s first freeway, has cut a wall through the communities of chinatown, cypress park, highland park, and south pasadena. in an attempt to provide safe access across these inhuman spaces, pedestrian overcrossings both accommodate and cage the body.

sixteen artists and two collectives engaged with each site and its surrounding communities through performance, temporary installations, and/or writing or print-specific projects for the publication. in this alienating maze of concrete and vehicles, how do we inhabit the paths built for walking?

the project takes inspiration from asco’s publications and guerrilla performances; erica avila's book folklore of the freeways; amy balkin's invisible-5 project; project x’s series of artist-led exhibitions and publications; rebecca solnit's book wanderlust: a history of walking; and the second-line brass bands of tremé who use the walls of the i-10 to amplify their music and voices.

video snack is an informal video screening series that began in 2013 in response to the lack of events showcasing short videos. the event was and has remained a venue for artists working in video to meet each other and screen their work. many contributions are artworks, but this is not the rule. contributors may also submit found videos likely to be seen on youtube, vimeo, and facebook. in this sense, video snack is modeled after the fragmented visual sequences played out as web pages are flipped through, scrolled along, opened and closed.

how has the act of remembering—and forgetting—been transformed in the digital age?

photography’s relationship with the concept of memory stretches its entire history and includes its every iteration. only now has the distribution of photography exploded with newfound ubiquity, ushering in a paradigm shift that bears semblance to that of the gutenberg press. photography’s various forms have converged onto a point of accessibility where what was once a luxury is now a presupposition. as the degrees of separation between people decrease, so do those between past, present, and future. to remember is to engage with all three, and to create is to make them tangible. the collective consciousness of humankind speaks a visual language, and photography is poised, now more than ever, to upend the very notion of what it means to create.

within the context of an evolving and transformative landscape of photographic practice, how has our perception of the concept of memory changed?

the new sommerakademie paul klee, under newly appointed artistic director tirdad zolghadr, is a fellowship program hosted by the bern university of the arts hbk and the zentrum paul klee.

over two summer sessions––august 2017 and august 2018––eight fellows are granted access to the university’s infrastructure and technical support, and will proceed to collectively author a public event scheduled for april 2019. although based on the idea of an academy, the aim is to transcend the blueprint of seminars and tutorials, and to focus on group research and cross-professional coalition building.

realty is the name of the first thematic building block, and it focuses on the role of contemporary art in recent histories of urban development and gentrification. the latter is a stark and grisly example of art’s leverage today, and finding a productive response to gentrification has evolved into something of a holy grail within the field internationally. in order to bypass the melancholia, and avoid theorizing our failures yet again, our references must go beyond the usual scope of euro-american art and academia. if the term “gentrification” implies a multiplicity of often underestimated factors, what does this mean for possible rules of engagement? in order to address these and other questions, realty will need to take stock of legal implications as well as artist initiatives, urban regeneration policies, chronospatial mythologies, art and/as architecture, and more.

because water is seen, now more than ever, as a contested resource, santa fe art institute (sfai) is committed to bringing together local, national, and global thinkers and creators to collectively expand and revise our knowledge of what we think we know about water rights. new mexico is rich in its relationship to water––a position created over a long history of corporate, environmental, political, and multicultural claims to this essential resource.

from september 2016 through june of 2017, sfai and its community partners will explore several questions: how do we describe and define the contested space around water? if water use is often parallel to culture, how can cultural activities result in greater models of equity to our water systems? how can diverse practices, from poetic to practical to political, create greater access to these and other parallel resources?

april 22 - june 11, 2017
film screening and artist talk: may 20, 7-9pm

please join us for a solo exhibition by heather m. o’brien, who participated in mint’s 2016 group exhibition where we are going, where we have been. heather will present two of her recent short films, where this photograph was found, and our machines are made of pure sunlight, and will give an artist talk the the evening of may 20.

heather's work explores how capitalist desire and militaristic legacy construct our ideas about home. she seeks to build encounters around issues that undo american social and cultural conditioning, and the illusion of accurate memory.

in 1938, langston hughes wrote this question in 'let america be america again,' a poem that demanded fulfillment of a dream that never was. decades later, constructed heroic identities continue to limit our personal and political imaginations. these four artists explore pervasive and predominantly masculine american icons: the explorer, the cowboy, the president, and the war hero. shifting and recontextualizing contemporary constructs of militarism, gender, and race, they reveal the duplicitous nature of myth and its vast contradictions. who is behind the veil? what was burnt out by the stars?